David's Tangled Thoughts

Oh yeah, I'm feeling great! I'm currrently watching the Boston College vs. Central Michigan University game right now. Boston College playing CMU? Well... I think we are going to pull off a moral victory. Currently, the score is 31-24 Boston with less than four minutes left of play. Go Chippewas! Saturday will bring Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech .

I'm moving over to Blogger beta. I'm not sure how that will go but if you are reading this, I suppose it worked. UPDATE 1430 31 Aug 2006: The migration went off without too much hassle. Although, some of my side bar crap disappeared. I was worried that my stat counter wouldn't go over but luckily it came back working like normal when I put in the old HTML code.

When I started running, I made a goal of being able to run two miles without stopping by August. I didn't think I'd be able to do it when I had to stay away from running for three weeks. When I started back up, it felt like I had taken two steps forward and one step back. Well since this would be the last day possible to acheive my goal, I decided that I would run two miles no matter what. I didn't care if I ended up slower than the power walkers, but I was going to do two miles non-stop. And you know what? I did it!

This post is mainly for my friend Season, who missed a great wedding in order to move to Florida and land a job but you all can read along too if you have the time. Yesterday, Kraig and Stacey got married. Kraig used to go to high school with me. He was in the year behind me while his brother, Kevin, was in my year. Stacey went to a neighboring school district—Niles, where she was good friends with Erin who is also one of my best friends. Small world? Yes, I’m very much aware. Not only that, Stacey is best friends with Val, a gal that I know from church who is also a cousin of Kraig. It’s like the six degrees of separation was mapped out for me. I’ll admit it, Kraig and I aren’t friends per se. We never really hung out during high school. (Actually, I spent most of high school alone.) Then college took me away from here so I never talked to him. But he was one of the best people that I got along with in high school. You have to understand that in a school that was as small as ours

I'm off to catch a wedding. If all goes well, I may not be blogging until Sunday night/Monday. Catch y'all later.

From the Chicago Tribune : Astronomers: Pluto No Longer a Planet PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.... For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune

I am amazed at how elaborate some blogs like The Malcontent are. It makes my blog look totally inadequate. I saw some of the features on the beta Blogger and I'm salivating over some of them. Oh, I know that I could easily spruce up my page but honestly, I don't know jack about HTML code and I am very worried about mucking up my template. I would scream bloody murder if my two years worth of drivel were to suddenly disappear. Here's what I'd like to do with my blog: 1.) Put the archives section in my sidebar into a drop down menu with the most recent months at the top. 2.) Implement labels so that I can organize posts by categories. 3.) Change my header. I'd like to put in some cool graphic/photo with David's Tangled Thoughts incorporated into it. Actually, I'm thinking about changing "David's Tangled Thoughts" into something else. Any suggestions? 4.) Change my background. But that's low on my priority list. I rather like the general te

See Minge's original post and accompanying comments here . Other than my Spartan ballcap or my Spartan beanie in winter, I usually don't wear any type of cover. Let's just say that hats aren't my thing unless they actually have a function. My ballcap is used when I'm out on sunny days. My beanie keeps my head warm when I'm out in the winter weather. Last Friday when I was in Lafayette, I saw that their store had a rack of wild and wacky hats. I was impressed. Mishawaka didn't have these things although I had heard that we would be getting a shipment for ourselves. So now I will make an ass of myself and post pics of myself in these ridiculous things. This is me in Lafayette. I was tempted to wear this all day but chickened out when I found out that groups of Purdue freshmen were spotted scoping out the mall. When I came into work on Monday, I saw that we had been sent our shipment of hats. I was excited. If I had this during my college years, I probably wou

On my way to Lafayette, I passed this company car for Red Bull*. It looked pretty neat. I still hold to my view that Hoosiers and Illinoisans are the worst drivers in the Midwest. Remember, I was driving on I-65 so it was jam packed with both of them. On my way back home, I headed into some heavy rains. It started to get really bad about 20 minutes from the I-65/I-94 junction. I didn't declench until I was past Michigan City. This country boy does not handle urban driving very well. Throw in bad weather and you are just asking for trouble. *I love jaegerbombs. Just thought I'd throw that in.

I felt slightly embarassed, cheated, and dissapointed as I watched Stargate SG-1 's 200th episode. I thought I was going to finally see the Furlings! Instead of seeing the "real" ones, the show featured them in an imagination clip. Following a remark made by Col. O'Neill, they showed cute and cuddly creatures that looked so much like the Ewoks. But what the hell, I still enjoyed the episode. It was utterly ridiculous and constantly poked fun at itself. References to Star Trek, Farscape, teen dramas, The Wizard of Oz, and the other stuff were great. Now that they have had their fun, how's about we get an episode that does deal with the Furlings?

I'm off to Lafayette , Indiana for work. Not as exciting as D.C. or Scotland but it's far enough from Michiana I guess.

I'm back from the farm. I decided not to go to the fair tonight. Instead I used the money that I earned to fill up my car with gas. I figured that was more benificial to me than going to Berrien Springs for a few hours and seeing a circus and eating fattening food. Instead, I'll eat that fattening food tomorrow. But as I said in my previous post, I do have some pictures for you. Here's one of the tractors with some zucchinies. (You might know them courgettes or summer squash.) One of the plenty of sunflowers at the farm. Alright, I owe someone a picture of an outhouse. I forget who. Yes, it's true, there is no plumbing at the farm. You get used to it... yet, you never get used to it. This is Dutchess, my grandma's dog. I remember when she was found on the farm. This dog used to run like the wind. She also smells! To my horror, I'm told that Grandma is talking about putting her down. She's 16 years old and is limping around. I still think of her as

<<--See more posts from last year's fair here , here , here , or just view the entire month . I'm headed to Benton Harbor in a few minutes to go work on the family farm. My dad said that he will pay me some money that I could use at the Berrien County Youth Fair . I've been looking forward to the fair all summer long but considering my financial situation, I'm not too eager about spending too much money there. I've budgeted enough money for one day (Thursday) but I may go tonight. It is Kids Day today so the circus will be in town. Sure you can see better circuses elsewhere but this is almost nostalgic. Every year that I've been to the fair, I've seen the circus. My two little cousins may be coming so it would be nice if I see them. As much as I keep my distance from little kids, I really do like them. The problem is I don't know how to handle them. Stay tuned. I'll try to post some pictures. D.C. Brian also has a post of his local fair here .

M&M prices went up again! Hey, I work at a candy store so I don’t have that many exciting things to talk about! ;-P If you want to buy Colorworks M&M’s it will cost you $9.99 a pound. For you British readers that’s £11.63 per kilo. (I hope I calculated that correctly.) That translates to 1.4¢ a piece! That picture you see above of seven pieces is 0.01lb which when rung up, will cost you 10¢. Yup, if you’ve got a dime, I’ve got seven whole M&M’s for you! What a rip off.

Nah... it's not that bad. You Are Most Like John F. Kennedy You live a fairy tale life that most people envy. And while you may have a few dark secrets, few people know them. What Modern US President Are You Most Like? Let me modify that: You live a fairy tale life that most people outside the Western Democracies envy. And while you may have a few dark secrets, you let fellow bloggers know about them but not your family. This was lifted from Jeremy's blog.

Read the Detroit Free Press story here . The local buzz this morning is centered on those three Texas Muslim guys that were arrested a while ago were going to attack the Mackinac Bridge . They were arrested following a tip from a store clerk when they bought 80 cell phones. Police found 1,000 cell phones when they looked through their van. According to TV report on Fox, they claimed that they were planning to resell the phones for profit. The Mackinac Bridge is a five mile bridge that connects the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with the Lower Peninsula. Without it, travelers would have to fly or take a ferry to get across. That, or they can take a long trip around Lake Michigan, traveling through Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. It is suspected that the cell phones may be used as detonators in bombs to blow up the bridge. Destroying the bridge would deal an economic blow to Michigan, but it would hardly be a big attack. There are hundreds of other targets in the state that would be more

<<--See also: Where’s My Saw? Today was the first day running since I injured my left foot. I don’t know what I’ve done to it but at least I’m no longer crying in agony when I put weight on it. The only time that I am limping is when getting back on it after it has rested for a while. For instance, I know I will hurt when I get up from the couch that I am currently reclined on. However, once I walk on it for a few steps, it will return to almost normal. I say normal because I can walk on it normally but it still aches. I wonder if it is so fragile that I can re-injure it. With that in mind, I went running today. It has been two weeks since I the last time I did and I don’t want to slip back into not exercising again. The start of the run was a little stiff but as I got into hit, it seemed to get better. Two weeks did a lot to destroy what I had built up. I probably ran less than half of what I did last time before I had to stop and walk. Kacey is going to drag me along on a leash

Jon Arbuckle is now going on dates? When did this start happening?

If you are a citizen, registered, and interested, you have until 8 tonight to get to the polls and vote in the primary. I will be looking out to see if the incumbent state representative will be sent to Lansing next term. He's currently in a three way race for the Republican ticket. One of his opponents has more signs in people's yards plus the endorsements of two county sheriffs (Berrien and Cass). I guess it'll be clear soon enough. 9 Aug. UPDATE: Well the incumbent that I was talking about barely won his primary. The margin was around 200 votes. Have you noticed, that I am not naming him? I used to work for him, so I'm trying to avoid making my blog pop up on any google search that he may do of himself. * * * What is with the move to the right and to the left? Rep. Joe Schwarz (MI-7th) lost his primary to State Rep. Tim Walberg who is arguably more "conservative." Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) lost his primary to Ned Lamont who lies further to the left. I&#

So far, I have heard good things about the movie World Trade Center but I’m not going to go see it. It’s for the same reasons that I didn’t see United 93 . I don’t consider myself a sensitive person. People have actually called me cold. However, 9-11 touched me in a way that few other things have. And I can’t understand why it has. I wasn’t in NYC or in DC. I don’t have relatives in those areas. Yet that morning, I felt naked—vulnerable. It is something that I have never dealt with before. Not even when I was being choppered away to Clark Air Base to avoid being killed on the ground in the Philippines. It’s sounds used, but for me the US was secure and safe from all the other horrors around the world. Reality sucks. The reason why I don’t want to watch 93 and WTC is because it would stir up all these emotions that are largely kept in control, especially the hate. Oh yes, I have pent up rage and hatred and it is something that I do not want. I am ashamed of myself when I fantasize abo

1.) If you value your privacy, don't put your phone number on the internet. 2.) If you value your privacy, don't text people who put their number on the internet. Although I'm not too worried about it, I texted a person who had put their number on the internet. It was a friendly message but in the ending, I said something to the effect: I bet you wish you didn't put your number on the net now. It was supposed to be a little joke because this person probably received my message with an arched eyebrow. I mean, I would if I got a strange txt. After I sent it, it occurred to me that I had just given out my phone number. I felt like a bit of an idiot. Now I'll just have a good chuckle over it. Oh well.

A few obnoxious teens came into the store today that reminded me to tell the world: I hate popped collars. Seriously, I think that the guys who do that shit need to be shot. It’s more heinous than those wild 70’s shirts where the collars traveled halfway towards your nipples. If your boyfriend, brother, husband, friend, or God forbid--father, does this. Do me a favor and slap them upside the head and burn all their polos. They shouldn’t be trusted with them in their wardrobes. I want this t-shirt: Now remember Billy, only retards wear their collars up! From the MSU Anti-Popped Collar Club: Today we "salute" you, Mr. Constant Collar Putter Upper. You, bedecked in popped collar, teach us that we no longer have to live with a cold back of the neck. Sure, your pink alligator polo may look feminine to some, but not the 17 other Farmington Hills guys wearing the same thing at the bar. Where others may see thoughtless fashion conformity, you preach a higher gospel. You preach of a w